Secrets Kept
by Mirrored Illusions
Summary: Some vampires try to frame Buffy for murder while she's visiting Cleveland, which puts Buffy on the wrong side of SSA Aaron Hotchner for the second time. It also jeopardizes her acquaintance with SSA Jennifer Jareau.
1. Buffy vs Hotch - Take Two

Disclaimer: Neither BtVS nor CM belong to yours truly.  
. This is a rewritten and expanded version of my fic 'Custody'. Unlike the original it will have several chapters .

Once again Buffy Summers found herself in an interrogation room and on the wrong side of the table from Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, ah sorry, make that *Supervisory* Special Agent Aaron Hotchner. Unlike like last time, however, he was accompanied by an agent about her own age, whom he'd introduced as Dr. Spencer Reid. He was cute in a way which might as well have come with a geek stamp on the forehead, but there was a real intelligence in those brown eyes and something that made her stop and pay attention. Not because he was physically dangerous to her, he pretty much had the stereotypical tall and skinny geek appearance complete with a shirt under a knitted vest and a leather messenger bag at his side, but because of what those observant brown eyes would see and which deductions he would make from that.

"Where's Agent Gideon?" He'd been the lead agent on the case back in Los Angeles when she'd been accused of burning down the Hemery High School Gymnasium, and Agent Hotchner had been his partner. Gideon had been the first, and one of the very few, to say that he didn't believe that she had killed any of her classmates. On the flip side, he had been certain that she was responsible for setting fire to the gym, even if he didn't seem to understand why she'd done it. Or even if it had been on purpose or not.

Regardless, it had made her sort-of like him. Not much, mind you, but she had been 15, still on her spoiled privileged behavior, recently called as the Slayer, an ancient vampire had been killing her classmates and trying to frame her for it, and the FBI had been trying to make her 'confess' to the murders. A lone federal agent who believed her, at least partially, had made her kind of accept him in a way she hadn't even considered accepting Agent Hotchner or any of the other agents or police officers who had worked on the case. In hindsight that had been a little gullible of her.

Buffy hadn't seen the missing agent when she was brought in, nor could she hear him on the other side of the two-way mirror. She did hear the voice of her acquaintance, JJ, and several other people. None of the agents or the local LEO's had mentioned Gideon either, even indirectly. What she had seen was a tall, black, and attractive man who looked at her with suspicion and who appeared to have already convicted her of every single crime she had ever been suspected of and probably several more as well; and a pretty African-American woman who had evidently been analyzing her for any kind of clue which could help the BAU convict her. It hadn't been a particularly friendly environment for her to enter.

Agent Hotchner narrowed his eyes at her, it had the unfortunate consequence of making him look even more constipated than he already did, clearly not liking that she was trying to take control of the interrogation, but he gave a short answer regardless. "Agent Gideon was killed in January of last year."

"My condolences," Buffy replied honestly. It definitely explained why the man wasn't there, but she had been silently betting with herself that he had simply retired. "Was the killer caught?" The man had seemed troubled and kinda arrogant in his self-assurance that his observations were always right, but her research into him years later when she had begun studying psychology at UC Sunnydale had shown her that the man was a renowned profiler. Several of the articles she'd found referred to him and a couple of men named David Rossi and Max Ryan, as the 'Godfathers' of the BAU. Apparently, the three of them had been the original team of profilers back when they were called the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) rather than the current Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU).

"Thank you." The man slightly inclined his head. "His killer resisted arrest and attempted to shoot another agent. He was shot and killed in the process."

Buffy nodded, it was an understandable reaction. After all, it was a well-known fact that all branches of the various government agencies entrusted with keeping the population safe took great offense when one of their own were harmed or killed.

However, the preliminaries were apparently over and Dr. Reid decided to try and break the staring contest between his superior and the main suspect in their latest murder case.

"Miss Summers," Buffy broke her eye contact with the elder agent and switched it over to the younger one. "You have to admit the evidence between what happened in Los Angeles in 1996 and what is happening in Cleveland right now have some very distinct similarities. Most murderers do not leave their victims with two holes in the neck. They don't drain their blood either. We also have concrete evidence that you were in the area when all four murders were committed."

She'd actually been in town to visit Faith, who was temporarily staying there before she hit the road again, and to check up on the Mini-Slayers who were guarding the Cleveland Hellmouth, when a group of vampires had discovered she was in town and decided it was their chance to get themselves into a more elevated position in the vampire community. Anyone who managed to kill her, or even give her some kind of serious injury, became instantly famous in the demon communities. The Master was highly revered in the community for being the first to kill her, even if Buffy's death had been extremely short and she had managed to permanently kill him not long after. Glory, on the other hand, was feared, but even she got bonus points for killing Buffy.

Buffy still wasn't sure how she felt about Glory getting the credit for that; on one hand it was Glory's fault that Buffy had died that time, but on the other hand, the hell goddess hadn't actually killed the Slayer herself. Buffy had taken a running jump off of the tower and through the inter-dimensional portal before being killed when she hit the ground at the foot of the tower. She'd committed suicide to save her sister and the world, but if it hadn't been for the thrice damned Glorificus then it never would've happened. It never would've happened if she hadn't loved Dawn enough to die for her so the girl, who hadn't originally been a girl, could live.

Naturally, she couldn't tell the two agents any of that, nor could she tell them that five of the eight vamps were literally blowing in the early autumn wind. Hopefully, Faith and the Mini's were able to kill the last three while she was in here playing twenty questions with the constipated agent and his genius sidekick. At least Reid was easy on the eyes, even if he was off limits to her now.

"From what you've already told me there are a lot of similarities, but none of that can change the fact that I didn't kill any of them. I didn't kill my classmates in LA back in the nineties and I didn't kill the students here in Cleveland either." Thankfully none of the victims had been Slayers or Potentials, but it didn't make their loss hurt any less.

"Miss Summers." Dr. Reid called for her attention again as she'd fallen back into her staring contest with Agent Hotchner. Ah, make that Supervisory Special Agent Hotchner. He had clearly gotten a promotion or two at some point in the last twenty years. And wow, now she felt old. Where had the last two decades gone?

"Miss Summers." He gave her an earnest look which was only missing a pair of attentive fluffy ears and a wagging tail to go along with the serious puppy dog eyes. "Is there something you would like to tell us, or something you feel we should know about?"

Not particularly, she thought to herself. There were some things most people did not need to know about, and the fact that there were real monsters out there was one of those. There was no doubt in her mind that Spencer Reid had enough nightmares as a result of the cases he had been a part of investigating, there was no need to add actual monsters to that list. The deprived human variety was more than enough. Out loud she said, "No, Dr. Reid, there isn't. But I'm sure whoever has been killing the students will be caught soon, just like the Hemery High Killer was caught."

Tall, dark, and oh so very serious, gave her another narrow-eyed look. "The Hemery High Killer was never caught. The murders stopped after the fire during the school dance. The fire destroyed nearly all the evidence, and it all coincided with your mother moving you to Sunnydale. A place, I might remind you, which had quite a few police reports which included your name. None of which are available anymore." The man's dark eyebrows seemed to suggest this was somehow her fault, but she chose to ignore the implied accusation.

"That is not surprising. The Sunnydale PD were the poster boys for corruption, but they got a little better after Mayor Wilkins was killed." She raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "As for my name being in a lot of police reports; I was usually listed as a witness. Sunnydale was a small town, and a lot of things happened either at the high school, the local club, or similar places where teenagers liked to hang out. Case in point; on my first day at Sunnydale High a male student was found dead inside a locker in the girl's locker rooms. It didn't cause nearly as much drama as you would think and it blew over quickly."

Before either agent got a chance to ask the obvious questions she followed up her statement with, "No, I had nothing to do with that either, nor was I a witness. I heard about it from the other students. The mortality rate there was sky high and no one seemed to notice or care. As far as people saw it it was nothing more than a small, quaint California town with a gang problem, and no one talked about the fact that the Year Book had large separate sections for all the students and faculty who had been killed or gone missing during the school year."

Buffy cocked her head slightly to the side, "Although that may or may not explain why it had forty-three churches and twelve cemeteries." When in doubt, babble. On second thought, she should've chosen something less incriminating to ramble about.

She gave them a few moments to assimilate the information she had just unloaded on them before she continued, "What do you mean the Hemery High Killer was never caught?"

Before either of the agents were able to reply, a quick knock was heard and a sharp dressed man with black hair and distinguished silver on the sides opened the door and entered the room without waiting for admittance.

"Agent Hotchner, Dr. Reid." The man gave a small but brisk nod to the two men already in the interrogation room. "Miss Summers is to be released immediately on the direct order of the Director. Please uncuff her at once."

Several vehement protests from her interrogators and an argument later and she was loose again. Somewhere in between all the arguing and the loud voices he had managed to introduce himself as BAU Section Chief Mateo Cruz. He also managed to apologize for his agents arresting and handcuffing her, before informing her that a friend of hers was waiting outside to take her home. As far as she could tell he was honest in his apologies but was unaware as to why she deserved it. Which made her wonder who had interfered on her behalf since the government didn't really like her and her group.

While he was holding Agent Hotchner back, figuratively, she slipped out of the small room, past the rest of the team, which interestingly included an older man who looked suspiciously like David Rossi, and one Jennifer Jareau.

Buffy had met JJ several years before when both of them had been attending the same incredibly boring conference together. Politics plus Buffy was not a good combination, add a speaker who could've doubled as a sedative and it was even worse. The only good thing that had come out of that event was an email acquaintance with JJ. The other woman had been both friendly and helpful when Buffy had asked numerous questions about laws and rules in regards to any number of things she'd been wondering about. Although she'd been very careful not to include anything directly related to Slaying as JJ didn't know about that. Once burned, twice as shy and all that jazz.

JJ's big, blue, and very expressive eyes were staring at her in surprise, but all Buffy did was give the woman a small, quick smile and a short nod in recognition without stopping or even slowing down. A chat at this point would probably not be a very good idea for either of them. Her team would no doubt be quizzing her next, which probably meant that every single email the two of them had ever exchanged between them would be gone through with a fine-tooth comb. Buffy sighed to herself; poor JJ. She hadn't meant to put the other woman at odds with her team, but there was nothing to be done about it now.

In all fairness when they had met Buffy hadn't known that JJ worked for the FBI. Yes, she'd known JJ had worked for one of the alphabet soup agencies, but not specifically which one. Besides, what were the odds of her new acquaintance being a member of the same team as one or both of the agents who had tried to convict her for a slew of murders 15-20 years prior? Of course, she should've known better than to think that she'd have that kind of luck.

In her own defense, she had toned things down once she realized that the 'Hotch' she kept mentioning was in effect the very same agent who wanted her behind bars. She'd also deliberately waited longer before she replied to anything the other woman sent her. It had hurt a little to sabotage her new friendship, but chances were that it could be harmful to both of them in the long run, and she should've just let it run its course and be done. Plenty of people met at conferences, kept in contact for a short time, and then moved on. But she liked JJ, and more than that she enjoyed having someone outside of the supernatural world who she could talk to, someone who saw Buffy and not just The Slayer. It was a rare occurrence to her these days and one she treasured.

JJ had sent her pictures of her sons; she had told Buffy about her pregnancy with her second child - the one she had lost while on a secret mission before she had even been able to tell her husband she was expecting again. She had shared the happy news when she became pregnant again and later she had CC'd Buffy on the mass email JJ had sent out after she had given birth to her second son. Having those emails scrutinized by her team would no doubt be incredibly painful for JJ. Hopefully, she'd be able to limit the exposure to one or two of them so she could keep at least a semblance of privacy.

As she was walking out of the local police HQ's a million thoughts went through her mind as she forcefully put the thoughts of JJ away; why had the vampires framed her and gotten her arrested by *humans* of all things? It wasn't their style and it made no sense. Very few demons adhered to human laws, and those who did were unlikely to try and frame her. JJ probably thought she'd been using her, Hotchner clearly was upset that he hadn't been able to catch her the first time and her slipping through his fingers a second time most likely would not improve anything. The other half of the team hadn't looked too happy about her legal escape either.

Buffy resisted the urge to massage her temples. There would no doubt be repercussions from this, but right now she didn't care. She had to make sure the rest of the vamps were dusted for trying to set her up. With any luck Faith and the others had managed to take care of the remaining vampires, but still. Several hours in an interrogation room had left her wanting to hit someone or something, hard.

She smiled as she saw her fellow Slayer sitting astride her motorbike in her favored black leathers, holding two helmets and waiting for her with an amused smirk dancing around her mouth. With any luck, there would be some dancing in her near future - the deadly kind.


	2. Investigations

As luck would have it Faith had managed to dust all three of the remaining vampires, with backup from half of the resident Cleveland Slayers. What they hadn't gotten was information. None of the three vampires had been willing to talk, and as Faith ran out of patience she'd simply dusted them one by one in an attempt to get the remaining ones into a more talkative mood. It hadn't worked so the four Slayers had tried to find some clues instead.

None of the eight vampires had been the low-level cannon fodder variety, but they weren't the brain trust either. Which meant there was someone or something with a higher brain function somewhere who had orchestrated the whole thing, and for some reason, they wanted Buffy in prison or at least detained to buy themselves some time to do whatever nefarious thing they were planning to do. Which in turn meant there was trouble ahead, and not just because some enterprising vampire wanted the glory for finally being able to kill her.

Buffy, Faith, and three of the resident Slayers had done a quick search of the immediate area around where each of the victims had been found, carefully avoiding getting too close to the actual crime scene and also avoiding getting caught on any surveillance cameras in the vicinity. Instead, they used their enhanced Slayer senses to view what they could from a respectable distance. The last thing any of them needed was for the police or FBI to get something they could use as circumstantial evidence against them, or for them to try and charge any of the Slayers for destroying or tampering with evidence. Most of the crime scenes had already been released, but it was the principle of the thing. Especially since Buffy didn't doubt that they would use anything they could against her, no matter how small and insignificant.

They also went over each of the places where the eight vampires had been captured, interrogated, and then dusted to see if there was anything useful left. None of the places had anything more interesting than the vampire dust. When that turned up nothing they continued on to the usual hangouts for the non-human population. Cleveland boasted several bars owned, run, and frequented by the undead and assorted demons. None had yielded anything they could use nor were there any vamps or demons they could slay, so in the end, the Chosen Two decided to spar in the Slayer-proofed training area.

The training area wasn't perfect, but it worked well enough, and its standard was well beyond what they'd had in Sunnydale. Of course, it didn't take much to get better than working out in a school library and the backroom of a magic shop, so they didn't complain. It had the usual gym equipment, fortified by magic so it wouldn't break easily. Buffy and Faith could've easily leveled the place if they'd wanted to, even completely demolish it if they were in a bad enough mood. But for sparring matches and general workouts, it was good enough. The six Slayers who used it regularly didn't complain so the Chosen Two didn't either.

When Willow had activated what they'd thought was all the Potential Slayers around the world, their tentative plan had been to build schools in the most demon infested areas and then educate both Slayers, Watchers, Witches, good demons who were willing to work with them, and other humans with some kind of useful abilities. It would've helped with the whole secrecy thing. That plan had been put on ice when it turned out that Willow's Activation Spell hadn't been as potent as they'd thought.

The Old Council of Watchers had had about 250 girls under their control at any given time in the last 2-300 years, but they had believed, and Buffy was proof of it, that there were, even more, girls out there who had the potential to become Slayers one day. After a lot of research and hacked databases around the world, it had turned out that the Bringers had definitely managed to kill over 900 girls between the ages of five and eighteen. There were an additional 200 or so girls they were unsure about because most of the specifics added up but there were inconsistencies they couldn't account for. Regardless, it meant the Bringers had succeeded in killing between 900 and 1,100 Potential Slayers in their quest to do the First's bidding.

In the five years since the Battle of Sunnydale, they had only managed to locate 136 girls who had turned into Slayers, excluding the ones who had turned up in Sunnydale. Interestingly they were all between the ages of 15 and 18 when they'd been Called. In fact, the only Potentials who had turned into Slayers who were over 18 at the time had been Vi, who had been 18, and Kennedy, who had been 19 when Sunnydale sank. Vi had been inside the Hellmouth at the time, and in Kennedy's case; right above it being used by Willow to channel the power to activate all the Potentials. Which probably explained why they'd been activated and none of the other older Potentials.

The jury was still out on whether or not Potentials lost their potential when they turned 18 if they weren't Called.

The Council records didn't have a single account of a Slayer being Chosen later than 17; Vi and Kennedy were definitely exceptions and had been Called during exceptional circumstances. Vi had turned 18 shortly before arriving in Sunnydale, and Kennedy was... Well, she was Kennedy, and she came from an old and wealthy New York family. The Old Council had probably intended to use them for something and pretending that their daughter would one day be Chosen most likely served some kind of purpose.

The sad thing was that most of those hadn't made it past one year. Little training, youthful arrogance, too few and too inexperienced Watchers, powerful and/or lucky vampires and demons had been their downfall. When the fifth anniversary of the Defeat of the First had come around there had only been 16 Slayers left, not counting Buffy and Faith. Six of those were stationed at the Cleveland Hellmouth to keep a watch on it and the surrounding area. Those who were underaged were officially emancipated and had been paired up with someone who was older, and they lived in small apartments. For the sake of safety in numbers, they were always paired up. The three apartments were about equal distance from each other and the Hellmouth. Those who wanted to complete their high school education were allowed to.

Each Slayer pair had one Watcher, and he or she lived between their charges' apartments. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was functional and it gave the girls a chance to have a life outside of their duty.

The other ten had been paired up, given a Watcher each, a credit card linked directly to one of the Council's bank accounts, a cell phone with the pertinent numbers and paid for by the Council, and then told to travel wherever their Slayer Dreams and instincts told them to go.

Each separate team included one Slayer and one Watcher, and in a few cases, it also included a Witch and/or a friendly demon. Two pairs had ended up in Africa, two pairs in Europe, two in Asia, two in South America, one in Australia, and one pair in North America. The latter also included Buffy and Faith, plus the six Slayers who guarded the Cleveland Hellmouth. The Chosen Two were also prepared to fly anywhere as back-up for the various other teams if needed.

The set-up was open to change at any time, depending on the demonic activity in the various areas. Apocalypse Season could often mean severe shake-ups as teams were moved around to deal with the latest attempt to destroy the world, particularly if someone didn't make it out alive. Their numbers were rapidly dwindling and it was causing problems.

Every Slayer/Watcher team were rotated every six months so no one got stuck babysitting the Hellmouth for too long unless the Slayer was in high school then it was once a year. It also gave everyone a chance to relax since there were so many people on guard duty there. They could go out, dance, watch a movie, take a class, research, spar, whatever they felt like. Even get friends and boy- or girlfriends, if they wanted.

Buffy and Faith were traveling more or less on their own, but they kept close enough that they could act as backup for each other within 6-12 hours. Neither had a Watcher, but they had Giles on speed dial in case of emergency. They couldn't travel together due to their clashing personalities, but they could stay close enough to be there for the other if it was necessary. Weekly phone calls and text messages every few days ensured they didn't drift too far apart.

Willow usually traveled with Kennedy, the only survivor from the Sunnydale Potentials, and Kennedy's Watcher, Herbert Von Hertig, the Third. He was one of the few surviving Watchers from the Old Council, and while he understood the change he still tried to treat 'his' Slayer the old way. The arguments between the two had quickly become legendary within the Defender's Council. However, neither of them had asked for a transfer, too stubborn to give in, so the arrangement was kept. Von Hertig was an incredibly well-read and knowledgeable Watcher and Kennedy was well-trained from a young age and, when she put her ego aside, she fought exceptionally well.

Both of them preferred it when Willow joined them as she was well equipped to act as a buffer between the two strong personalities. She was proficient in Slayer and demon lore, experienced in the real thing and could, therefore, have proper debates with von Hertig and if necessary sway him to her own view. The same thing worked with Kennedy, as Willow could argue her case well enough to get the other woman to see her point of view. Kennedy, of course, wanted her girlfriend nearby, but also because Willow was a much more effective backup than her Watcher who subscribed to the old way of doing exactly as his title said.

*-*-*

Meanwhile, back at the police station where the BAU agents are set up.

"JJ, do you know Summers?"

David Rossi hadn't missed how their main suspect had greeted one of his team members and that the profiler had returned the greeting.

"Yes, we met at a conference several years ago and have kept in contact since." JJ's eyes were still wide in surprise, but she was getting her equilibrium back. "The woman I know isn't a killer. She works in some kind of private security, pretty high up in their hierarchy."

Derek Morgan broke in, "You know that isn't proof she won't kill anyone. Killers can be the sweetest and most charitable people ever and still be brutal killers when no one's watching them. They will defend people when there are people around who they don't intend to kill, if for nothing else than to keep their cover. First responders, firefighters, police. The list goes on."

JJ's blue eyes met Morgan's brown ones steadily. "I know, but I don't think she's our killer". She lifted her hands up in a placating gesture before anyone had the chance to speak up.

"Yes, I admit the cases are really similar and she was in the area during all the murders, but that isn't proof. We can probably find other people who were also in both areas at those times. Neither LA nor Cleveland are small cities, and quite a few people travel between them. We don't know what she's doing here in the first place.

"There are also enough discrepancies between the murders here in Cleveland and the ones in LA back in the 90's that it could be a copycat. Anyone could find Buffy's name on the flight manifest and make plans accordingly.

JJ glanced at Hotch, who looked disappointed at her, and Rossi who studied her skeptically. "The two of you arrested her with no solid evidence. What you have on her are circumstantial at best. Being a suspect in a killing spree doesn't necessarily make her a serial killer two decades later, regardless of how it might look. There are no records of her doing anything wrong in those 20 years and we know she wasn't incarcerated."

She closed her eyes briefly as she took a fortifying breath before she looked around at each of her team members, including stopping Spence from speaking by simply giving him a look, before she resumed eye-contact with the two senior profilers. "But I do think she knows who's responsible in both cases."


End file.
